Tag: Hope
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After Disruption
If you happen to visit Berlin it would be well worth looking out for the Chapel of Reconciliation on Bernaeur Strasse, in the Mitte district. The building, and the history that lies behind it, bear testimony to hopeful things that can emerge from terrible disruption. The original chapel was constructed in the late 19th century,…
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An inherited garden (a ministry parable)
We recently moved to a new home and, given how much outdoor spaces are now being used for entertaining, we have poured some energy into our inherited garden. Previous occupants have worked hard to maintain, cultivate, and increase the ground, and that shows. Many of them remain in the neighbourhood, and have pledged themselves to…
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Even this, Lord Jesus?
Ours is a hyperbolic age, a time when words have become a devalued currency, where sentiment often masks a lack of substance, and where things that seem too good to be true most often are. In this kind of atmosphere it can be difficult for us to give oxygen to the comforts and counsels of…
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Will the plague come near to our door?
The first Lord’s Day since the Covid-19 Coronavirus began to reach our shores has passed. In most fellowships in the UK and Ireland some mention will have been made of it, and perhaps some low key precautions put in place. Along with the ubiquitous hand sanitiser tubs, and the comedic elbow bumps, there has also…
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10 Thoughts in the wake of the Jarrid Wilson Tragedy
The news is becoming horribly familiar – a pastor who has been used of God, who has even counselled and helped others through their struggles with depression and self destructive thoughts, takes their own life. The tragedy of Jarrid Wilson’s suicide that emerged yesterday is all the more poignant given his work of intentionally teaching…
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No pang shall be mine?
John Wesley famously summarised the final outworking of the gospel in the hearts of those within early Methodism with the memorable words, ‘Our people die well’. As a summary of the power of gospel hope to hold out against death, this is as succinct as it is brilliant; as a road map for walking through…
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Hope and holidays
If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work; But when they seldom come, they wished-for come, And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents. – Prince Hal, in Henry IV Pt.I The summer holiday season can be a time of mixed emotions, of brilliant highs and deep rest, of sweet…
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Review: After Life by Ricky Gervais
The creative output of comedian, writer, director and actor Ricky Gervais is always worthy of some consideration. His past successes with The Office and Extras were due in no small part to his ability to see the everyday banalities of modern life, the petty significance of people’s experiences, and to render them with starkness and…
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Burial matters
These days I’m reading, thinking, and preaching a lot about heaven. This comes as a culmination of some preaching I did in 2018 on Christ’s return, which in turn led me into conversations with people about the intermediate and final state. Last Lord’s Day I preached on our bodily resurrection, and then spent time with…
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Hope by any other name
The etymology of words seldom brings us hope. If sentences and paragraphs, properly constructed and carefully concocted, are slender means to mend a heart or heal a wound, what capacity can the history of how we speak hold to help us? One phrase which finds its own space in modern English, and which does its…
THINKING PASTORALLY 